Highlights From Chip: On Cooper, Peters and Jet Lag

According to Football Outsiders, 91 receivers have been targeted at least nine times this season.

Of that group, Riley Cooper ranks 84th in catch rate, which is simply the percentage of receptions per targets.

Cooper’s been targeted 16 times and come up with six catches for 68 yards (catch rate of 38 percent). But Chip Kelly expressed on several occasions today that he is happy with the wide receiver’s production.

“Riley’s done an unbelievable job, especially blocking on the perimeter, great red-zone target for us,” Kelly said.

“A lot of it for receivers, are you getting open? Are you getting off a jam? And Riley’s doing that. …I think when you look at a receiver, he can’t do anything else, but when the ball’s thrown to him, catch it.”

Michael Vick and Cooper have not been able to get on the same page. Last week against Kansas City, Vick missed Cooper twice on posts, one that resulted in an interception. Cooper, meanwhile, had a drop on third down near the sideline. According to the coaches’ stats, that’s his only drop of the year.

It was clear last week that the Eagles miss Jeremy Maclin. Cooper had single coverage all game long and finished with two catches for 29 yards on seven targets.

The Eagles could look to get Damaris Johnson in the mix or play Zach Ertz a little more on the outside. But chances are, this is what they have to go with. So for now, expect Kelly to stick with Cooper and use him as blocker/red-zone target.

PETERS DEALS WITH FINGER INJURY

Left tackle Jason Peters told T-Mac earlier this week that he’s dealing with a dislocated finger on his left hand.

Asked how Peters’ injury is affecting him, Kelly said:”I think any player that’s limited somewhat with an injury is gonna be not as effective if he wasn’t injured.

“Are we gonna bench Jason Peters? No. So it’s not that much of a concern. We’re still gonna play with J. We still think he’s one of the best tackles in this game, but he’s not exactly where he could be because he’s got a limitation with the hand, but not to a point where we’re gonna sit Jason down and put someone else in.”

The only other injury of note is Patrick Chung dealing with a shoulder injury. He was not practicing fully today, but Kelly did not rule him out yet for Sunday. If Chung can’t go, rookie Earl Wolff would take his place alongside Nate Allen.

NEW TIME ZONE NOT AN ISSUE

This will be the first game that requires the Eagles to get on a plane and fly to a different time zone.

Kelly said his plans for such trips is to leave Philadelphia the day before the game and keep the team on east coast time.

“Jet lag doesn’t affect you because of the time of the kick,” Kelly explained. “So it’s a 4 o’clock kick. We just stay on east coast time. … I think where it really affects you is when you’re going [west to east]. So all of a sudden if you’re gonna play, it’s a 1 o’clock kick, which is a 10 a.m. kick, so your pre-game meal is now four hours earlier. So your pre-game meal’s at 6. You’re getting up at 5. I think that’s when it can be a problem for you.

“We’ve learned when we’ve gone to play in different time zones, you’re only in there for such a short amount of time. It takes you about a week to get acclimated, so you just stay on your same cycle. So we’ll stay on basically an east coast time schedule when we go out there. But the game’s kicked off at 4:25, which is two hours difference, so it shouldn’t affect us from that standpoint.”

Follow Sheil Kapadia on Twitter and e-mail him at skapadia@phillymag.com.
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